Hardball Heaven

Not that we stayed up to witness the bitter end, but ESPN.com tells us this morning that the Red Sox dropped their sixth straight game to the Angels last night in Anaheim, 4-3. Six straight is the worst skein (good word) for this sorry squad in five years.

On the bright side, we weren't mathematically eliminated last night - at least not according to Grigori Perelman, with whom I have absolutely nothing in common. The Yankees lost on an Adrian Beltre 9th inning walkoff HR, and the White Sox and Twins both lost. We remain 6 1/2 behind the Bombers and 4 out in the wild card chase.

Tonight at the Big A, Jon Lester will try to get through the third inning against Angeles starter Kelvim Escobar.

By the way, there's a little side drama going on with ManRam. He supposedly asked out of the Yanks game on Monday with a hamstring issue, but then pinch-hit late last night. He's being called onto the carpet lately for openly disagreeing with an official scoring call that gave him an error instead of a hit. Very Wade Boggs-like, Manny. Didn't know you even knew there was an official scorer. Ever the playa protector, Tito will say that this shows a whole new level of alertness for Manuel Labor.